Free whitepaper The State of Application Development Report 2018/19: Local Government

The European Union appears to have poured cold water on the UK’s government ambition to keep the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) seated among the EU’s data protection decision-makers after Brexit.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator addressed the UK proposal in a speech at the weekend at the 28th Congress of the International Federation for European Law (FIDE), saying the EU would not share its decision-making autonomy with a third country, including, he said, “a former Member State who does not want to be part of the same legal ecosystem as us.”

Barnier said, “According to the United Kingdom’s position first presented – and published – this week on data protection:

The United Kingdom would like its supervisor to remain on the European Data Protection Board, created by the GDPR.

It wants to remain in the one-stop-shop.

It believes that this is in the interest of EU businesses.”

The government recently proposed a new agreement between the EU and UK, building on standard adequacy for data protection, “that would better deliver on our shared interests”.

The government wanted the new agreement “to provide for continued regulatory co-operation and consistent enforcement through an appropriate ongoing role for the ICO on the European Data Protection Board, to the benefit of consumers and businesses across the EU.”

It envisaged the ICO potentially having input into “include amendment, dispute resolution and termination provisions.”

However, Barnier said, “But let’s be clear: Brexit is not, and never will be, in the interest of EU businesses.”

He added, “And it will especially run counter to the interests of our businesses if we abandon our decision-making autonomy. This autonomy allows us to set standards for the whole of the EU, but also to see these standards being replicated around the world.

“This is the normative power of the Union, or what is often called “the Brussels effect. And we cannot, and will not, share this decision-making autonomy with a third country, including a former Member State who does not want to be part of the same legal ecosystem as us,” he said.

He said, “The United Kingdom needs to face up to the reality of the European Union. It also needs to face up to the reality of Brexit.”

“The United Kingdom decided to leave our harmonised system of decision-making and enforcement.

“It must respect the fact that the European Union will continue to work on the basis of this system, which has allowed us to build a single market, and which allows us to deepen our single market in response to new challenges,” Barnier added.

Barnier concluded, “It is one thing to be inside the Union, and another to be outside.”